Most Viewed Tourist Traps in Saipan

The Grotto

Named the 2nd best diving spot in the world. The Grotto in Saipan has recently undergone some renovation. Aside from parking at the top and walking down the steps to the cave, they've built a lookout area and put some nice pavilions near the parking. We went there one night and found some people taking advantage of the lookout area for a party gathering. I was able to take this photo in the bright moonlight.

Unique Suggestions:
Go down those steps and see the blue-blue waters even if you are doing the dive, or go to the lookout point at top.

Related to:

Road Trip

Budget Travel

Diving and Snorkeling

Was this review helpful?

Free Tour!

As part of our package or perhaps it was offered to all people staying in hotels was an optional tour of the island. This small bus came complete with a Japanese tour guide and a camera dude who filmed the tour and offered the tape as a souvenir for a whopping 16,000 yen (if I remember correctly). That's roughly CDN$200. No bleakin' way!

The tour itself is quite interesting as it took us to two historical locations involving Japanese soldiers offing themselves from a cliff and some old cannons and tanks lying around.

Here's the kicker: the bus ends at the duty-free mall which was a long way from our hotel. Luckily the free shuttle bus came here frequently.

Unique Suggestions:
Bring your camera because some of the views are quite spectacular. In particular, Suicide Cliff was quite a somber, almost romantic place to be.

Fun Alternatives:
You can easily rent a car, bike, or just plain old walk to the same places and avoid the duty free store. Plus you get no annoying camera pointing in your face and the cameraman asking you to make the stupid peace sign. I'd sooner give him the middle than the peace fingers.